Ooh, Zebulon is about to lay a logical/philosophical smackdown on Orpha. I find the two of them extremely compelling right now.

Also, I have no problem refering to Barnabas as Barney John, but I just can’t bring myself to refer to Zebulon as Zeb. Zebulon seems too dignified to be addressed by a diminutive. Which indicates some really amazing art and writing on Spike’s part, since he’s only been in 4 or 5 pages, so far.

Except it really ISN’T that difficult. The problems they have are all organizational and personality generated. The physical problems the Doves and Reclamation have are, as I see it:
1. The Circassian is a defunct building collapsing into itself. The Doves need to maintain the Circassian’s brothel zoning license but don’t have the wherewithal, labor and knowledge, to maintain the building itself.
2. Reclamation has the labor, knowledge, and will to rebuild the Circassian, and needs defunct architecture to rebuild into working, sustainable housing for the poor.
The solution here is simple and obvious, if only the personalities on both sides would pull their head out of their knee-jerk, confrontational butts. The Doves and Rec could work together to rebuild the Circassian into a licensed brothel that also serves the poor (no, not THAT kind of service) and promotes sustainable living. Certainly it could be a better (and less ambiguous) public relations move for the Doves than their addict warehousing Wet Houses. Also, for all the lawyers they have, I have no doubt Reclamation could still use some powerful allies in Templar politics like the Doves. I also can’t see the Oarlock turning into another Hipster Ghetto like Oarlock North if it contains a few Brothel Soviets.
I believe that if only cooler, less confrontational heads like Barney John and Zebulon were to get together for a beer and a pinot, it would take them less than five minutes to come up with just such a mutually beneficial solution. But then rational, earthed thinking like this doesn’t make for exciting comic drama, so I have little hope of seeing it happen in Templar (just like it almost never happens in real life either).